To Tell the Truth - Roger Maris's wife; PANEL: Dina Merrill, Johnny Carson (Oct 2, 1961) 

With all due respect, Maris is not a hall of famer. Excellent player with 2 great seasons but that's not enuf for the H of F. Look up the stats of Albert Belle, that's what I'm talking about

The reason he's not a hall of famer is because the rest of his career wasn't as dominant. While he had a couple of the best seasons ever seen from a hitter and was always a good fielder, it's not something he sustained through his whole career. He has a WAR of 38.2 and 1325 hits and 275 home runs. Very greatcareer but not strong enough for a HoF induction.

@@noaharbo9753 It's called the Hall of FAME. Fame means what? Known for an outstanding accomplishment. That's what it means. Roger Maris is famous for doing what many thought impossible... beating the Babe at his own game-- the greatest home run season of all time in 1961. I rest my case. Roger Maris belongs.

@@joeambrose3260 @Noah Arbo It's called the Hall of FAME. Fame means what? Known for an outstanding accomplishment. That's what it means. Roger Maris is famous for doing what many thought impossible... beating the Babe at his own game-- the greatest home run season of all time in 1961. I rest my case. Roger Maris belongs.

@Troll Mctrollerson That's a very broad generalization. I lean to the left, and I think it's appropriate to do this for the ladies. I think it's probably more of a generational thing, than anything else.

@Troll Mctrollerson Horseshit. ...that is, I think I disagree.

See what happens when Bud offers a carton to my father! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FdUm0Sq81IY.html

Those damn things killed Johnny Carson.

@@Lava1964 Wrong. Johnny quit smoking in the 80's, he died approximately 20 years After quitting. People, smoking isn't healthy, but neither is drinking or smoking weed, knock off your self righteous comments.

@@luvrmusic1 You are not required to partake in any of those three.

I thought that was Robert Zimmerman

He died in Houston Tx

He grew up and went to high school in Fargo, ND.

Glad you enjoyed it!

I've always been amazed that someone who was as shy and private as Carson possessed such a sharp mind and quick wit

Yep, Carson's wit is legendary.

unfortunately, as far as the subject matter at hand is concerned, Carson was too busy acting a clown instead of asking questions of the mystery guests like he was supposed to do. His remarks here are stupid, not "witty." Claiming he "knew no more about baseball than he did about the mafia" is not witty; its idiotic, and scantly humorous - even if it was actually true, given his work in the entertainment industry. Tom Poston summed it up perfectly in his comments as he voted.

Underrated? He still called the best by pretty much every late night host

@@cameroncarollo4071 I said his wit. Obviously he wasn't underrated. Most people talk about his ability to interview and how he was able to make his guests comfortable, but his ability to come up with a quick line was what I was talking about. Some people are only funny with the lines written for them.

+JayTemple Sorry, but it's more important to me that people who have an interest in the subject area-- in this case Roger Maris-- would be able to find the video than it ts to avoid spoiling one round of a 60 year game show episode. I try to avoid spoiling anything. I defy you to find a prior video where this has ever been an issue. I couldn't come up with anything better than this that would be short enough to fit within the text limit RU-vid imposes.

+JayTemple And you're welcome.

Don't get me wrong. I love that you post these. But "Roger Maris' relative" would have done the job.

@@donreed Actually, Jay is right. If "relative" was written instead of "wife," in the description, that would have served the purpose that the TTTT administrator stated in his response.

@@Walterwhiterocks Upon your advice, I withdraw my comment [Deleted] and regret having written it.

Also owned a motel in Lake Placid that is still around.

I might add that the Yankees got Maris in a trade with the then Kansas City Athletics. He didn't play in the Yankees' farm system or I would have seen him.

Ok. Now what ?

@@joeambrose3260 I don't even watch baseball anymore. Multiple divisions and wild cards is just not baseball. The games drag on at a snails pace and gets so boring.

@@GGE47 Ditto

The press gave Maris such a hard time in New York, so much so that his hair began to fall out due to the stress of playing for the Yankees. Mickey Mantle tried telling him to relax and not let it bother him, but Roger did not handle it all that well.

Agreed. They should have used the mail carrier who doubled for Gina Lollobrigida as the title.

It could simply be changed to Roger Maris's relative. I also think the title is a spoiler, but fortunately the impostors gave wrong answers that were obvious to me as a baseball fan. I knew that Maris did not start baseball in the Yankees organization (started with the Indians, also his first major league team) and that he wasn't born anywhere near Arkansas (born in Minnesota, raised in Fargo, ND). The wife may have been off on the number of home runs, but that was a less egregious error as she was only off by one. (The one who got it right was still wrong because he said it occurred in the minor leagues. The most he hit in a minor league season was 32.) It is true that he was a great HS football player. He still holds the national record for returning kickoffs for touchdowns: 4 in one game. However, Mickey Mantle, while offered a football scholarship by the University of Oklahoma, signed with the Yankees organization as soon as he graduated from high school. Baseball was his and his father's first love and the Yankees wanted him ever since their scout, Tom Greenwade, saw him at age 16 and had to wait for him to graduate. Under the rules at the time, as soon as he signed a pro baseball contract, he became ineligible to play college football.

@@loissimmons6558 Thanks for the bedtime story. It worked great !

@@georgimihailov4906 Who gives a rat's fanny

@@joeambrose3260 Thanks for two idiotic posts. It's not a legitimate thread until the moronic troll shows up.

Frankly, he hit his stride when he figured out he was not an interesting person, but he could interview others who WERE interesting. Personally, he is as dumb as a rock. Bragging he knows nothing about baseball?? Who revels in their own stupidity??

Mine too. I have 61* tattooed on my arm

The problem was, nobody on the panel knew Maris hit 39 HR's the year before, so contestant #2's correct answer garnered him no value.

I knew who she was right away

Not really. I've seen Johnny interview Johnny Bench, Henry Aaron and of course Bob Uecker many times, and he got along with all of them great.

@@jamesanthony5681 Yes, but whenever Johnny had a baseball guest (Joe Garagiola) the conversation was always about generic things and seldom to never about the kind of subjects a knowing fan of the game would ask. As host of the Tonight Show he had to be up to speed on who was winning because it could provide fodder for monologue jokes but he was no baseball expert by a longshot. This hilarious clip reveals it when Tommy Newsom and Fred de Cordova showed off *their* expertise as fans to him. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n23kdwM8ur8.html

@@epaddon Sure. I agree Johnny was not a baseball expert and probably didn't follow the game on a regular basis. His job was to entertain, not delve into some of the arcane aspects of the game. And he did that very well. That's why he had Uecker (especially) and Garagiola on the show, guys that could tell funny stories, with Carson very often acting as the straight man. Johnny Bench could tell a funny story and had a sense of humor. When Uecker made his first appearance on the Tonight Show (1971?), Carson wasn't sure he actually played in the big leagues because Bob was very relaxed and pretty funny in front of the camera.

Yeah, now what ?

The guys' bald heads sort of made Johnny think of Gina Lollobrigida's outstanding attributes.

a98cer Ah, okay. I would’ve never gotten that. Thanks!

correct that was funny

Did you watch a different video clip?? Poston didn't ask the question about home runs, Dina Merrill did. Poston also didn't say he voted for contestant #1 "based on her answer to that question." He jokingly said he voted for #1 based on her answer to Johnny Carson's question - it was a clear joke because Carson used his time to tell jokes and never asked a single question.

scootdaws25: Yikes! 😔

It took me a while but I believe he meant their hairless heads side by side could represent Ginas' rather ample attributes

@@joeambrose3260 correct

My Mother used tobacco for her roses 🌹 killed bugs nicely 😁

Hey, nobody went home empty handed. Even ballplayers smoked back then. I think Roger Maris did. He smoked 61, in one day! Jk. 😎

Nor on WML! Yes, a real shame.

Roger had undergone an incredible amount of stress that season when pursuing the record. He was subject to more booing and hate from fans who didn't think he was a worthy player of breaking the record, and to add further insult to injury, the Commissioner of baseball, Ford Frick, who was overly protective of Ruth's record of 60 home runs in 1927 declared during the season that because 1961 was a year when the season had been expanded from 154 to 162 games, then the record had to be broken in 154 games or else it would have an asterisk placed next to it. Maris failed to do it in 154 games as he did it in 162, so there was a stigma in the minds of some about the alleged legitimacy of the record that was nonsense. At any rate, Maris, who had been facing the abuse from the fans and the press all season, I doubt was anxious to make any kind of public appearances after setting the record because he likely would have figured he'd get booed by the audiences. He was in general, a quiet, reserved man from the midwest not used to the spotlight of a big city like New York and he eventually left the Yankees on bitter terms after the 1966 season, not returning for more than a decade when George Steinbrenner reached out to him. By the time of his death in 1985, he had finally been embraced as a Yankee hero.

@@totellthetruthcbs4220 Roger could have only appeared on WML as a mystery guest. His picture was in the newspapers so often by October 1961 that even most non-baseball fans probably knew him by sight, making it impossible to put him on TTTT as a contestant.

Johnny? What did he do? Kitty: "As Roger Maris's wife, what is your role in his life?" Really, Kitty??

@@jamesanthony5681 he acted like a jerk as always

He's amazing!

Where is proof?

It's also incredible that Carson knew nothing about baseball. He was a big tennis fan, though.

Hy Gardner, Tom Poston and Betty White were the very best panelists of all time. Johnny, the worst.

@@Lava1964 He also had a penchant for women and booze. 😎

Orson Bean was a trip. Funny guy.

@@forrestrivers1792 NOBODY is gonna call Betty White a bad panelist lol